OKLAHOMA CITY — Loud City is not Fraud City.

Every Thunder had a basket Wednesday night, save for the Broncos mascot.

“We got punked,” Denver Nuggets coach David Adelman admitted after the 149-106 drubbing. “We are not going to flush that. We have to be better.”

If the series opener was a referendum on the Thunder’s inexperience, Game 2 was validation of its season. Oklahoma City is equipped with stars and a bench deeper than a Tolstoy novel.

This is a team of spectacular opulence. So why, after demonstrated excellence, do they have such a punchable face?

Racing out to 87 points in the first half – the most ever in a playoff game – the Thunder became increasingly annoying. This was WWE disguised as the NBA. And let’s be clear: Game 3 will look a lot like Wednesday if the Nuggets don’t put in a mouthpiece and lace up their gloves.

This series will be won in a ring, not on a court. The Thunder is not changing. OKC’s players relish this like pigs in mud.

Lu Dort turned the paint into a cagematch. Isaiah Hartenstein yapped at a Nuggets assistant coach – When isn’t he complaining? – leading to a technical. Alex Caruso nipped at Nikola Jokic’s ankles like a chihuahua on a double espresso.

Even Rumble the Mascot looks like Teen Wolf on steroids.

“This is the playoffs,” said Michael Porter Jr, whose mind remains strong, but his ailing left shoulder has made him a liability. “We have to be the enforcer. And we did a bad job at that.”

Listen, the Thunder is (bleeping) good. They had the Nuggets down bad. And they refused to retreat to the farthest neutral corner. Coach Mark Daigneault successfully challenged a foul call, leading 104-69 with 5:17 left in the third.

It fell under the guise of sticking up for his players, but it tilted closer to rubbing noses in the carpet.

It is hard to blame them. But it is also OK to loathe them.

Lots of teams act tough. But OKC is throwing so many limbs in so many directions, it’s a wonder they don’t hit an usher or the PA announcer.

Jokic downplayed the physicality after fouling out in the third quarter for the first time in his career. Aaron Gordon did not.

“They are calling the second foul almost all of the time. They are fouling Joker first. You know Jok is reactionary and they do get the second guy a lot of the time,” Gordon said. “But they are fouling him. point blank. Period.”

There is a sobering truth in any rout. If you don’t like it, stop it. And the Nuggets could not. They were embarrassed, humiliated and throttled. And that was just in the first nine minutes of the first quarter. They trailed 36-13, the game a mess of turnovers, open 3s and too much Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The effort was questionable. The execution was awful.

It was like they knew they had a split. And they could not wait to split to the nearest exit.

The thrashing left lingering questions: Can anyone on the Nuggets besides Jokic and Russell Westbrook match Oklahoma’s brute force moving forward? “Maybe” is the uncomfortable answer.

Will MPJ ever make another meaningful basket?

MPJ is 3 for 18 from the floor in this series and 2 for 11 from 3-point range, numbers that demand he be benched or sit out to heal for Game 4. He is the baseball equivalent of a DH. When he’s not hitting triples, he has no purpose. And nobody is picking up the slack. Christian Braun is 2 for 8 from beyond the arc. Denver’s bench is Westbrook and the holograms, save for sprinkles of Peyton Watson.

And finally, what was Adelman thinking keeping his starters in down 38 points a few possessions after intermission? Jokic fouled out with 1:17 remaining in the third quarter. Adelman smiled, a sarcastic response to questionable officiating, but he should have removed the three-time MVP long before the hip check.

“I felt like those guys wanted to go back out there and play. They needed to find a rhythm,” Adelman said. “… I think they thought we were trying to junk up the game, which we weren’t.”

It was already trash at that point.

So, go ahead and put a Sharpie through the Nuggets if you are absolutely sure that the Thunder has scarred and scared Jokic and crew into the fetal position with their snarl and immense talent.

You can argue that now after Denver impersonated a speed bag.

But it’s not convincing. Not yet. We have a series now. And until the Thunder wins in Denver, the credits will not start rolling.

The Nuggets rebounded after getting clocked in Game 3 in Los Angeles in the opening round. They have earned the benefit of the doubt.

They got dressed down and beat down. They must make adjustments, biting their tongues and returning to basics. No rope-a-dope. At the opening bell, they must be prepared to fight.

Because if they aren’t, they’ll deserve exactly what they get.

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